THE rate of London’s hotel suites steadily increases as the hotel nears the city center. London is actually divided into four urban neighborhoods – Bloomsbury, Kensington, Paddington/Hyde Park and Westminster. In Bloomsbury, the lesser expensive hotels are those near King’s Cross Tube station. In Kensington, one can find four-star hotels. In these four-star hotels, you will usually find elegant British dining restaurants. But one can find the same quality of British food when he or she takes it outside. For 3 pounds, you can already have a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, beans dipped in tomato sauce, coffee or tea and orange juice. Eateries stop serving breakfast after 11 a.m. For 5 pounds, you can already order a McDonald’s. For 8 pounds, you can have a drink at a pub. For 10 pounds, you can indulge in a fine dining Chinese restaurant (that is outside the hotel of course).

For 20 pounds, you can order yourself a bottle of wine at a pub. For 30 pounds, you can have a date in first-class restaurant. By first-class, I mean the air conditioning or the heating is not bad, there is a jazz band playing around or there is an open area in the restaurant which overlooks the city or River Thames and the London night skyline. For 50 pounds plus, you can stay in the restaurant of the five-star hotel where you’re billeted all night and all dawn long. The menu usually consists of cheese salad, breaded fish cakes, cold meat, smoked eel, lobster salad, duck rolls dipped in sweet chili sauce, deep fried prawns dipped in mayonnaise, smoked Scottish salmon, lobster coated in caramelized apple, wild mushroom, warm whiskey bread, Dover Sole fish, shrimps from Morecombe Bay and pies, tiramisu, mousse, Danish pastries, lemon cake, wild forest berries, waffles, pancakes and puddings as dessert. Wines served there consist of champagne, strawberry vodka and passion fruit.
One advantage of eating in these hotel restaurants is that they sell food after you’ve checked out.

Food to go is ideal when you’re embarking either on a plane or train trip or while waiting for your plane back home at Heathrow. Menu that you can select from include bagel, Yorkshire ham, egg salad with grape, walnut dressing, tuna, lobster deep-fried in avocado, roast beef, English mustard wrap, ham and cheese, vegetable sticks, fresh fruit salad, cookies, fruit yoghurt, fresh orange juice, mineral water and a choice of pastries. For an add-on into your four-star or three-star hotel suite, you can request for a Notebook, a scanner, a printer and a fax machine. You can even have your wedding at the hotel with a reasonable price range. The wedding buffet will consist of potato cake with lamb and caviar, ricotta dumplings dipped in chilled tomato sauce and asparagus, among others. Four-star or even three-star hotels usually have their own spa and the spa is equipped with a pool with jet stream, steam rooms, treadmills, body wrap, body scrub, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, aromatherapy massage, reflexology and facials.